Four Wichita State University faculty and staff members have been named 2025 Faculty and Staff of the Year by the Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR), recognizing their excellence in teaching, research, service and student support.

The KBOR awards recognize outstanding contributions by faculty and staff across the state’s universities. 

• Dr. Lisa Parcell, Kansas Health Foundation Director of the Elliott School of Communication and professor of communication, Tenured Faculty of the Year. A nationally recognized scholar of media history, Parcell explores how advertising and public relations shaped consumer culture. As a teacher and mentor, she is known for building students’ confidence in communication and research. Read more about Parcell.
• Dr. Erin O’Bryan, assistant professor of communication sciences and disorders, Tenure-Track Faculty of the Year. O’Bryan leads research on person-centered storytelling for people with aphasia, helping patients reclaim their voices while training future speech-language pathologists in empathy and compassion. Read more about O’Bryan.
• Marco Hernandez, assistant teaching professor of print media and foundations coordinator in the School of Art, Design and Creative Industries, Faculty of the Year. Hernandez blends cultural identity and creativity in his art and teaching. His prints have been exhibited nationally, and he inspires students through his leadership of Tornado Alley Press and the First-Generation Artist Exhibition. Read more about Hernandez.
• Dr. Christopher Leonard, director of Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS), Staff of the Year. Leonard has transformed CAPS into a hub of student-centered mental health services, reducing wait times, expanding access and fostering a campus-wide culture of care. Read more about Leonard.

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Wichita State University is Kansas' only urban public research university, enrolling more than 25,000 students between its main campus and the WSU Campus of Applied Sciences and Technology (WSU Tech), including students from every state in the U.S. and more than 100 countries. Wichita State and WSU Tech are recognized for being student-centered and innovation-driven.

Located in the largest city in the state with one of the highest concentrations in the United States of jobs involving science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), Wichita State University provides uniquely distinctive and innovative pathways of applied learning, applied research and career opportunities for all of our students. The National Science Foundation ranked WSU No. 1 in the nation for aerospace engineering R&D, No. 2 for industry-funded engineering R&D and No. 8 overall for engineering R&D.

The Innovation Campus, which is a physical extension of the Wichita State University main campus, is one of the nation’s largest and fastest-growing research/innovation parks, encompassing over 120 acres and is home to a number of global companies and organizations.

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